It is inevitable for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Karnataka to make all efforts to keep the power in Karnataka which is crucial for the Congress to keep its national identity. In this power struggle two issues which raised by Siddaramaiah is very significant and might give a major challenge to the Opposition BJP lead by its lingayat strongman BS Yeddyurappa, who has been declared as the Chief Ministerial candidate. The BJP is also making efforts to grab the power with a slogan “mission 150” to decimate the century old party, Congress Mukth Bharath.
Ahead of BJP’s national president and election strategist Amit Shah’s three days visit to Karnataka next month to work out a strategy to the ensuing polls which is seen as entry to the South, Siddaramaiah has moved the pawn first to checkmate the BJP.
Siddaramaiah’s support to lingayat community to treat them as a separate religion disassociating from Hinduism has been a master stroke and this might erode the lingayat base for the saffron party.
Siddaramaiah has sent his lingayat Ministers to conduct a survey to gather opinion from within the community, a section of which has been demanding status of a separate religion outside Hinduism. The Ministers spoke about such a survey after CM Siddaramaiah said he would recommend lingayats’ demand to the Centre if there was unanimity in the community on the issue. This is the first indication of Congress backing the demand.
The lingayats, concentrated in northern Karnataka, form 17 per cent of the electorate, making it the single largest community in the State. They have supported the BJP in recent years — former BJP CM B S Yeddyurappa is a lingayat. Their demand to be recognised as a separate religion is not new, but hit headlines last week when it was reiterated at a rally attended by 50,000 lingayats in Bidar. Assembly polls in Karnataka are due in 2018.
The State Minister for higher education, Basavaraj Rayareddi, a lingayat, said four other lingayat Ministers would travel across the State to gauge the opinion of the community. “We will conduct a survey and based on the response, we will ask the CM to make the recommendation.” However Yeddyurappa who enjoys the support of lingayts and mutts which control the community has opposed the demand for a separate religion. He said “let them say anything. There is no difference between Veerashaivas and lingayats.
The Akhila Bharatha Veerashaiva Mahasabha will decide whether the community should have a separate religion. We are Hindus”
The Veerashaivas are not a caste... we are a religion. In the 12th century, Basava and his disciples gave us a strong culture, a strong philosophy...of a casteless society, of equality to all, including women; about avoiding superstitions. It is a world religion, like Buddhism, Christianity, Jains. like Hinduism,” says MB Patil, Water Resources Minister and an influential Minister from the community.
A jittery BJP smells an attempt to split its traditional vote-bank in north Karnataka. “We are very much a part of Hinduism,” Yeddyurappa told a public rally, accusing the Congress of divisive politics. “The lingayat community will stand united and there is no question of seeking separate religion status,” he asserted.
However some lingayat leaders in the Congress are cagy about the entire issue of Congress banking on the division of the lingayat community.
Siddaramaiah’s support to an ongoing agitation against the imposition of Hindi signboards at the Bengaluru Metro stations and constituting a committee to examine the legality of a separate Kannada State flag has incited the regional pride ahead of elections is also a cause of worry to the saffron party which is yet to work out a counter strategy.
A senior Congress leader said “ this is the strategy Chief Minister has adopted like the BJP in some States to pit lingayats against lingayats by encouraging them to have their own religion. This is exactly what he wants.”
lingayats are the followers of 12th century reformer Basavanna who preached against caste. There are also Veerashaivas who follow the teachings of Sri Renukacharya, who believed in Vedas, puranas and the caste system. Veerashaivas and lingayats, who both worship Shiva, have always been considered one and the same. But there are some who contend they are different. They argue that Veerashaivas are a Shiva-sect of Hinduism, while the lingayats must be deemed to belong to a different religion.
A BJP leader on the condition of anonymity said these are the new threat party has to face. He said “Whether the issue is the adoption of a Karnataka State flag, the resistance to use of Hindi in public spaces, or the assertion of the lingayat caste identity in opposition to a Hindu religious identity, it is the BJP that is feeling the heat”.
Amidst all these development political pundits are looking at Amit Shah to wriggle out a strategy to counter these strong moves of the Congress to keep its domination.